1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to image processing.
2. Description of Related Art
Automatic image enhancement (AIE) techniques operate on sampled images and invoke image processing operations on the sampled images by analyzing the sub-sampled images. Automatic image enhancement techniques automatically modify images by adjusting exposure, contrast, sharpness, color balance and/or saturation. After analyzing the sampled image, automatic image enhancement techniques automatically determine conservative corrective actions, to perform on the image. The determined appropriate image processing is then applied to the image. Specifically, automatic image enhancement techniques can be performed in a fully automatic mode, where conservative image processing parameters can be chosen to ensure that the image quality does not get worse.
In the automatic image enhancement field, methods are known for modifying image data in various ways. U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,615 to Eschbach, U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,217 to Eschbach et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,370 to Fuss et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,502 to Eschbach et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,209 to Eschbach et al., each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, disclose various automatic image enhancement techniques.
Alternatively, for high quality publication and printing, manually modifying image features may be preferred for artistic reasons. Specifically, a wide variety of software image enhancement applications are available that allow a skilled user to manually optimize image features so that a particular image may be tailored to match certain qualities desired by the user.
Lastly, it is known to use a genetic algorithm to modify an image on a random basis and use the results, as judged by a user, to modify the image modification in a series of modifications that are eventually acceptable to a user. One example of this method is PhotoGenetics, by QBeo Corporation.
This invention provides systems and methods that adjust automatic image modifications until a user accepts the results. This invention separately provides systems and methods that allow image modification to be adjusted to accommodate image data that regularly comes from a specific source and requires similar adjustments.
This invention separately provides systems and methods for adjusting the amount of user interaction so that the user can be trained or have better control over the output according to their skill level and time available.
The systems and methods according to this invention use known automatic image modification methods and systems for users that do not possess either the skill or the time to manually modify features to produce acceptable output. The systems and methods according to this invention add user input and interaction to automatic image enhancement. Alternatively, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/487,805, filed Jan. 20, 2000, incorporated herein in its entirety, relates to an automatic method for adjusting color quality. In the ""805 application, an image is analyzed for various color problems, such as luminance differences, contrasting colors, etc. A user without the skill to manually modify images, but needing modifications other than the standard automatic image enhancement modifications to an image, can use the systems and methods of this invention to implement increased modifications to an image to produce results the user can accept.
In various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention, differing numbers of adjustment parameters may be provided based on the user""s skill level or time available. For example, speckle removal can be adjusted based on the size of the anomaly and the size of the comparison area. Accordingly, to remove speckle, the systems and methods of this invention can, for example, generically increase or decrease the speckle removal parameters, or allow the user to adjust the size of anomaly analyzed for and/or the comparison area used. In the increased adjustment parameter mode, the user is given a suggested anomaly size and a suggested comparison size. The user is then allowed to adjust these parameters based on experience and time constraints. The user can be trained using the systems and methods of this invention. The user""s adjustment parameters can be adjusted by the user to fit individual preferences without requiring the user to determine starting values.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in or are apparent from the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems, methods and graphical user interfaces according to this invention.